Staying Alive : Fenixdown's Guide to Survival on a PvP Server

Over the past couple of months, we've been seeing Blizzard's stance on world PvP continue to increase. While this has no bearing whatsoever on PvE realms, this has the potential to have major ramifications on PvP servers.

That being said, and simply put, not everyone wants to do world PvP. However, leaving one's friends and guild behind just for avoiding such an endeavor is NOT an option, no matter what others might tell you. Enjoying certain aspects of the game and disliking others, for whatever reasons one has, is fine and good.

As a person who has played on a PvP server now for six years (with only a minimal break on a PvE realm), and has spent the majority of that time playing a healer (which now have about as much offensive capability as a fly has against an Abrams tank), I am here to tell you this is NOT the end of your world. You don't have to transfer or quit. You don't have to leave your guild who you've grown very much attached to. Here are some very simple rules that I have developed over the years that will help drastically increase your survivability while on a PvP server.

1. NEVER DO DAILIES ON WEEKENDS : I cannot stress this enough. Don't go out into areas where there will be high traffic on weekends. Weekends are when the highest majority of players are out in the world. Especially those who are only out there to mess with individuals such as yourself. If you don't want to be a target to such people, then you will need to find something else to do with your playtime during weekend hours.

Note : For those wondering what time slot the weekend is, that is after 3 p.m. on Friday until 2 a.m. on Monday. Times may vary depending on region.

2. Find a time slot and stick to it : For me, I have found that the best time on weekdays to do dailies is between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. (obviously excluding weekends, see rule 1). During this time is when there is the least overall amount of total world traffic. Furthermore, those that are out during certain portions of this time frame (usually between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.) are those who are in the same boat you are in (people with jobs and lives and such). It is best to surround yourself with others who have the same time commitments that you do, as they will be most likely to share in your interest to simply get things done and get to work.

Find a time slot that your server fits under these guidelines during and stick to that.

3. Always have an escape plan : Know your surroundings well, and have contingencies set up in the event (which will be rare at this point if you follow rules 1 and 2) that you do find yourself caught up in world PvP. There is also a subset to this rule which will be below.

3b. Have constant access to a safe zone : Safe zones will not exist in MoP on the Pandaria continent. However, this does not mean that safe zones everywhere are removed. The best option for you is to do this.

- Set your hearthstone to a remote area that is less likely to have high traffic in Pandaria.
- Purchase the ring that allows you to teleport to Dalaran, thus giving you both access to Stormwind/Orgrimmar and access to a safe zone.
- If this ring is out of your budget, an alternative is to get the neck that teleports you to Black Temple. This will require some fly time to a safe zone, but the initial landing spot is a very remote region and will have no resistance whatsoever.

4. Learn to love game sound : Play with game sound on at all times. Many things that could prove dangerous to you are also noisy. Certain mounts make quite a fuss, like engineering mounts. Stealth noises activate when something stealthed gets near you. These can give you some added defense to avoid world PvP. There is a subset to this rule in the event you just absolutely cannot play with sound activated.

4b. If dead, play the waiting game : If you cannot predict your attacker coming and they do get you, wait them out. You aren't likely to be waiting long, as he's very impatient. DO NOT go AFK while doing this. That gives him the advantage. You need to watch what this person is doing. He may appear to be gone, but he's probably either a. mounted up incredibly high so you can't see him, b. found a good hiding spot, or c. stealthed nearby. You need to see what he's doing so you will know when things are likely clear.

Tip to 4b. : In case you did not know, while you are dead you can still see stealthed individuals when you get close enough to them. If your opposition is stealthed and you do not see them right away, move around and look. They are definitely close.

5. Don't fly in : Do not use flight paths. Ever. With guards being no more than a mild annoyance, this makes flight paths a prime camping spot. Simply get on your mount from your remote area that you can hearth to, go very high up, and turn on auto run.

With these five simple rules, you can nearly avoid world PvP and stay safe in the world of a PvP server. This concludes this guide.

While I personally disagree with suggestions that involve changing one's gameplay to avoid others (though these are valid for people who are utterly against world PvP), I would like to add a couple others and these come from the perspective of someone who picks a fight at every given opportunity and welcomes the opportunity to counter a would-be ganker.

1. Don't be that guy who plays zoomed in on your character's rear. Zoom your camera out to max and if you are in a high-traffic area or even suspect you might be, don't be afraid to look around while you kill your mob. It's not going anywhere. Be paranoid. If a player wants to attack you and has an ounce of common sense, they're going to try to be advantageous. Bad rogues and druids will land next to you and stealth before engaging, which in the very least, lets you know what's coming. Better ones will fly over you without missing a beat, stealth once they're out of your LoS and come back for you. Be on stealthie alert for a couple minutes if you see someone fly overhead.

2. Be careful using damaging auras in neutral towns. A hunter, mage, unholy DK or lock who keeps their pet on aggressive/defensive screams 'Kill me' along with paladins who stand around with ret aura on. I've hit many a noob with my stat stick and made a clean getaway long before the guards stop killing them and move after me. Speaking of which, be aware of guard placement. One of my favorite places to pick fights during Cata launch was Shrine of Goldrinn in Mt. Hyjal. As a range, I can sit just outside of the camp and blow people up. If they try to return the favor while next to a guard, well, I'm the only one outside of the guards' aggro radius.

3. Most campers are bad at it. Outside of stealthers who don't realize that you can locate them as ghosts, far too many try to camp on top of your body. Look for some cover and rez as far away from them as you can. In most zones (the rare exception being no-fly zones or instances involving lowbies out in the open fleeing high lvls), this offers ample time to mount up and fly away.

EDIT: Forgot an easy one. If someone is about to engage you (that you know you can't counter) or has already killed you and is camping you, take advantage of instant queues (LFD, BGs [lol]), etc.

Over the past couple of months, we've been seeing Blizzard's stance on world PvP continue to increase. While this has no bearing whatsoever on PvE realms, this has the potential to have major ramifications on PvP servers.

That being said, and simply put, not everyone wants to do world PvP. However, leaving one's friends and guild behind just for avoiding such an endeavor is NOT an option, no matter what others might tell you. Enjoying certain aspects of the game and disliking others, for whatever reasons one has, is fine and good.

As a person who has played on a PvP server now for six years (with only a minimal break on a PvE realm), and has spent the majority of that time playing a healer (which now have about as much offensive capability as a fly has against an Abrams tank), I am here to tell you this is NOT the end of your world. You don't have to transfer or quit. You don't have to leave your guild who you've grown very much attached to. Here are some very simple rules that I have developed over the years that will help drastically increase your survivability while on a PvP server.

1. NEVER DO DAILIES ON WEEKENDS : I cannot stress this enough. Don't go out into areas where there will be high traffic on weekends. Weekends are when the highest majority of players are out in the world. Especially those who are only out there to mess with individuals such as yourself. If you don't want to be a target to such people, then you will need to find something else to do with your playtime during weekend hours.

Note : For those wondering what time slot the weekend is, that is after 3 p.m. on Friday until 2 a.m. on Monday. Times may vary depending on region.

2. Find a time slot and stick to it : For me, I have found that the best time on weekdays to do dailies is between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. (obviously excluding weekends, see rule 1). During this time is when there is the least overall amount of total world traffic. Furthermore, those that are out during certain portions of this time frame (usually between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.) are those who are in the same boat you are in (people with jobs and lives and such). It is best to surround yourself with others who have the same time commitments that you do, as they will be most likely to share in your interest to simply get things done and get to work.

Find a time slot that your server fits under these guidelines during and stick to that.

3. Always have an escape plan : Know your surroundings well, and have contingencies set up in the event (which will be rare at this point if you follow rules 1 and 2) that you do find yourself caught up in world PvP. There is also a subset to this rule which will be below.

3b. Have constant access to a safe zone : Safe zones will not exist in MoP on the Pandaria continent. However, this does not mean that safe zones everywhere are removed. The best option for you is to do this.

- Set your hearthstone to a remote area that is less likely to have high traffic in Pandaria.
- Purchase the ring that allows you to teleport to Dalaran, thus giving you both access to Stormwind/Orgrimmar and access to a safe zone.
- If this ring is out of your budget, an alternative is to get the neck that teleports you to Black Temple. This will require some fly time to a safe zone, but the initial landing spot is a very remote region and will have no resistance whatsoever.

4. Learn to love game sound : Play with game sound on at all times. Many things that could prove dangerous to you are also noisy. Certain mounts make quite a fuss, like engineering mounts. Stealth noises activate when something stealthed gets near you. These can give you some added defense to avoid world PvP. There is a subset to this rule in the event you just absolutely cannot play with sound activated.

4b. If dead, play the waiting game : If you cannot predict your attacker coming and they do get you, wait them out. You aren't likely to be waiting long, as he's very impatient. DO NOT go AFK while doing this. That gives him the advantage. You need to watch what this person is doing. He may appear to be gone, but he's probably either a. mounted up incredibly high so you can't see him, b. found a good hiding spot, or c. stealthed nearby. You need to see what he's doing so you will know when things are likely clear.

Tip to 4b. : In case you did not know, while you are dead you can still see stealthed individuals when you get close enough to them. If your opposition is stealthed and you do not see them right away, move around and look. They are definitely close.

5. Don't fly in : Do not use flight paths. Ever. With guards being no more than a mild annoyance, this makes flight paths a prime camping spot. Simply get on your mount from your remote area that you can hearth to, go very high up, and turn on auto run.

With these five simple rules, you can nearly avoid world PvP and stay safe in the world of a PvP server. This concludes this guide.

You maybe could avoid PvP with those rules. Not on my server, we hunt at all times, a lot of people work non 9 to 5 hours meaning late gameplay, which means more hunting when the blueshielders come out of their protected zones to RP or do dailies. Either way, they get found and slain.

You maybe could avoid PvP with those rules. Not on my server, we hunt at all times, a lot of people work non 9 to 5 hours meaning late gameplay, which means more hunting when the blueshielders come out of their protected zones to RP or do dailies. Either way, they get found and slain.

Actually, this just gave me some extra pointers to toss out there for people.

6. Do old content : If traffic on your server is simply too much to handle in daily "hot spots", but you need to make income, go back and do older daily content. True that the total amount of gold per quest will be lower, but the overall gold per hour will be higher since you will have very little resistance in older areas. As a best example, Molten Front will be a barren wasteland except for maybe the occasional panda (which will likely all be phased out for you, anyway). Going and doing the entirety of your dailies there will be fast, and in the end efficient.

This, of course, mostly applies if you are simply doing dailies of some sort for monetary gain. If you are going for reputations, then you would need to focus moreso on the previously listed rules.

7. LFD is your friend : When all else fails, just start running dungeons. Nobody can kill you inside an instance. Well, nobody can GANK you inside one, anyway.

While I personally disagree with suggestions that involve changing one's gameplay to avoid others (though these are valid for people who are utterly against world PvP), I would like to add a couple others and these come from the perspective of someone who picks a fight at every given opportunity and welcomes the opportunity to counter a would-be ganker.

1. Don't be that guy who plays zoomed in on your character's rear. Zoom your camera out to max and if you are in a high-traffic area or even suspect you might be, don't be afraid to look around while you kill your mob. It's not going anywhere. Be paranoid. If a player wants to attack you and has an ounce of common sense, they're going to try to be advantageous. Bad rogues and druids will land next to you and stealth before engaging, which in the very least, lets you know what's coming. Better ones will fly over you without missing a beat, stealth once they're out of your LoS and come back for you. Be on stealthie alert for a couple minutes if you see someone fly overhead.

2. Be careful using damaging auras in neutral towns. A hunter, mage, unholy DK or lock who keeps their pet on aggressive/defensive screams 'Kill me' along with paladins who stand around with ret aura on. I've hit many a noob with my stat stick and made a clean getaway long before the guards stop killing them and move after me. Speaking of which, be aware of guard placement. One of my favorite places to pick fights during Cata launch was Shrine of Goldrinn in Mt. Hyjal. As a range, I can sit just outside of the camp and blow people up. If they try to return the favor while next to a guard, well, I'm the only one outside of the guards' aggro radius.

3. Most campers are bad at it. Outside of stealthers who don't realize that you can locate them as ghosts, far too many try to camp on top of your body. Look for some cover and rez as far away from them as you can. In most zones (the rare exception being no-fly zones or instances involving lowbies out in the open fleeing high lvls), this offers ample time to mount up and fly away.

EDIT: Forgot an easy one. If someone is about to engage you (that you know you can't counter) or has already killed you and is camping you, take advantage of instant queues (LFD, BGs [lol]), etc.

This in addition to the OP. Though with LFD & BG queues i understand that you can't accept them if you're in combat, but i do recall Wintergrasp and Tol Barad being able to be taken even during combat, though it's been 5 months since i played so i can't confirm that.

Also, there's a lot that can help you if you generally just know your class well, know how to escape and use situational awareness (like #3 from OP). If you're playing a class like a lock or priest against a melee class or anything with a pet (except DK's) - remember that you can position yourself close enough to mobs to fear them into the mobs, giving yourself a major advantage.

Finally, i strongly recommend Engineering - the ultimate world pvp profession. Rocket boots to get away quickly, get out of combat and mount up/stealth etc. and parachute cloak is hilarious for luring people to the edge, jumping off and getting them to follow you, only to use your cloak and watch them plummet to their death. Finally, don't forget things like Northrend Wormhole Generator. If you can cc the enemy enough to cast this you can use it to escape to Northrend

Explain to me why you have always played on a PvP realm, knowing full well the consequences of such a choice, and then go so far as to downplay Blizzards attempt to reinvigorate the world pvp activity, and t create a guide on how to avoid it. Why role on a realm where pvp will happen, only to constantly fear/avoid/complain about it. I understand people might have made toons on realms with their friends, and didn't realize that they would be ganked while trying to do dailies, but the beautiful thing about that is that you have those friends and guildies with you, and if you love them so much and don't want to leave them, then I would assume that those guys are nice enough to come give you a hand when you are being eaten alive in Tol Barad.

I myself welcome the changes, as i made the decision to play on a realm where I have a reason to call on my Orgrimmar trolling guidlies for help, or feel like rolling over a zone and taking down the likes of you. Moral of my story is, learn to adapt, or learn what acronyms like PvE and PvP mean before you start fussing over Blizzards attempts at reigniting the war.

Explain to me why you have always played on a PvP realm, knowing full well the consequences of such a choice, and then go so far as to downplay Blizzards attempt to reinvigorate the world pvp activity, and t create a guide on how to avoid it.

It doesn't look like you've understood what the original post was about. He's telling people how to avoid pvp activity and avoid getting camped if they engage in it. Where are you getting "downplaying blizzard's attempt to reinvigorate world pvp activity"? The people that would want to avoid pvp would be avoiding it anyway, perhaps even logging off, etc. If anything, his post may help save someone some frustration and keep them playing instead of (in an extreme case) quitting. I'm sure Blizzard would rather have that person as a paying customer than a disgruntled former player.

Originally Posted by Faerwen

Why role on a realm where pvp will happen, only to constantly fear/avoid/complain about it.

First, it's 'roll'. Second, where did he constantly complain?

Originally Posted by Faerwen

I understand people might have made toons on realms with their friends, and didn't realize that they would be ganked while trying to do dailies, but the beautiful thing about that is that you have those friends and guildies with you, and if you love them so much and don't want to leave them, then I would assume that those guys are nice enough to come give you a hand when you are being eaten alive in Tol Barad.

The only sensible thing you've said so far. I've been on a pvp realm since Vanilla, never had any pvp issues but i'm fairly experienced - so if i want to avoid it i have the option and i can. Whenever people complain, I always retort with 'transfer to a PvE realm', but in this case it doesn't apply because he's simply telling people how to avoid it.

Originally Posted by Faerwen

Moral of my story is, learn to adapt, or learn what acronyms like PvE and PvP mean before you start fussing over Blizzards attempts at reigniting the war.

Your story is stupid. Once again you seem to have displayed some major reading comprehension. The OP didn't 'fuss' over reigniting world pvp.

Solution: Get a full set of pvp gear or a good mix of heroic raid gear and pvp gear, have a pvp spec ready with a UI optimized for pvp gameplay, wear flasks/pots and learn how to pvp.

No restrictions. And have fun killing people 1v1, 1v2 and 1v3 when they are stupid enough to attack you.

While this may be true for some people, this is not true for healers. While I've been on the beta, healers seem to be far more pigeon-holed than ever before in either a. offense at the expense of defense or b. defense at the expense of offense.

In other words, PvP gear won't matter unless you play a role you may not enjoy. While this may seem "fine" for you, this may not be fine for everyone else. I'm actually liking the idea of having a "DPS" healing spec to quest with. However, that said, I know it's only going to be useful for questing, and not for PvP. PvP will just be yet another expansion where healers are nothing more than walking bulls-eyes that will, eventually, fall over and be no threat to an individual.

Furthermore, it seems PvP gear is even moreso "pigeon-holed" for healers, as you get only the option to a. boost healing at the expense of offensive PvP power or b. sacrifice healing at the benefit of PvP power (again, either all offense or all defense, and not a balance of the two).

This guide is for those types of individuals, or for individuals who simply do not have the a. interest or b. time to invest in the addition of world PvP activity, or any other type of individual that this guide may be helpful towards.

Faerwyn as far as you are concerned, play the minority faction on your server and see how easy it is to just "get some friends out there to help you". My faction imbalance is actually three times as bad as yours. Step in those shoes before making comments, please. Thank you.

This guide is to also help other individuals who fall under that guideline, as no matter what, there is no way to remove the thing that makes world PvP less desirable for some : simple numbers disadvantages. Until Blizzard does something about population balances, this guide is a good tool to assist others in, as previously pointed out, what can be frustrating times during daily activity.

-Don't go out without PvP gear, at least a pvp trinket.
-Try and not do things alone. Me and my friends usually do dailies in groups. Always with my BF at least.
-Don't pull allot of mobs at once unless you are certain the coast is clear
-There is no shame in using potions.
-Know your escape route if you need one
-There is no shame in a tactical retreat, I cant think of 1 class that has no methods to escape combat with relative ease.
-If you are expecting a fight with another player, keep your cooldowns for the encounter and not the 100k hp spider you are fighting
-POTION OF DEEPHOLM this bad boy has saved me on numerous occasions. Requires you to be out of combat, so a vanish, feign death or running like mad until combat drops works great.

PvP will just be yet another expansion where healers are nothing more than walking bulls-eyes that will, eventually, fall over and be no threat to an individual

This I disagree with personally though, healers are a force to be reckoned with, and with 1-2 dps that know to get rid of that feral and mage attacking you asap you are a force to be reckoned with and can even carry your team to victory.

The bad healers are the walking bullseyes and its very easy to notice those who have very little awareness and take them out with ease.

The team with 1 competent healer will win against the team with 3 healers not pulling their weight

While this may be true for some people, this is not true for healers. While I've been on the beta, healers seem to be far more pigeon-holed than ever before in either a. offense at the expense of defense or b. defense at the expense of offense.

In other words, PvP gear won't matter unless you play a role you may not enjoy. While this may seem "fine" for you, this may not be fine for everyone else. I'm actually liking the idea of having a "DPS" healing spec to quest with. However, that said, I know it's only going to be useful for questing, and not for PvP. PvP will just be yet another expansion where healers are nothing more than walking bulls-eyes that will, eventually, fall over and be no threat to an individual.

Furthermore, it seems PvP gear is even moreso "pigeon-holed" for healers, as you get only the option to a. boost healing at the expense of offensive PvP power or b. sacrifice healing at the benefit of PvP power (again, either all offense or all defense, and not a balance of the two).

This guide is for those types of individuals, or for individuals who simply do not have the a. interest or b. time to invest in the addition of world PvP activity, or any other type of individual that this guide may be helpful towards.

Faerwyn as far as you are concerned, play the minority faction on your server and see how easy it is to just "get some friends out there to help you". My faction imbalance is actually three times as bad as yours. Step in those shoes before making comments, please. Thank you.

This guide is to also help other individuals who fall under that guideline, as no matter what, there is no way to remove the thing that makes world PvP less desirable for some : simple numbers disadvantages. Until Blizzard does something about population balances, this guide is a good tool to assist others in, as previously pointed out, what can be frustrating times during daily activity.

Depends.

I play a healer. Actually a holy priest in BGs and shadow when I am out in the world. We all know rogues have wet dreams and fantasies about a clothy out in the world pulling 2 mobs. Now, I do not have the best gear, but can hold my own against a rogue. However, there are some durn good rogues out there that exceed my skill level. Kudos to them.

If you know your class, have +resil gear, and know other classes dirty tricks, you will have a better time.

-Don't go out without PvP gear, at least a pvp trinket.
-Try and not do things alone. Me and my friends usually do dailies in groups. Always with my BF at least.
-Don't pull allot of mobs at once unless you are certain the coast is clear
-There is no shame in using potions.
-Know your escape route if you need one
-There is no shame in a tactical retreat, I cant think of 1 class that has no methods to escape combat with relative ease.
-If you are expecting a fight with another player, keep your cooldowns for the encounter and not the 100k hp spider you are fighting
-POTION OF DEEPHOLM this bad boy has saved me on numerous occasions. Requires you to be out of combat, so a vanish, feign death or running like mad until combat drops works great.

The guide is clearly written for PVE healers with no competitive PVP experience who play on PVP servers. PVP servers are more frequently hubs for raiding than PVE servers. It is a good guide for that type of player.

I like world PVP too, it is more fun when the person is willing and able to fight back. I know not everyone agrees with that.

The guide is clearly written for PVE healers with no competitive PVP experience who play on PVP servers. PVP servers are more frequently hubs for raiding than PVE servers. It is a good guide for that type of player.

I like world PVP too, it is more fun when the person is willing and able to fight back. I know not everyone agrees with that.

i'm of the opinion that learning to be better at pvp makes you better at pve. one of the best pieces of advice i ever got in this game was that the best way to learn a new class/spec/keybind set was to do bgs and get used to them in a stressful environment.

people shouldn't hide from pvp. its fun. i personally don't understand why pve servers even exist.

Here's a better suggestion: embrace world pvp, because it's much more fun than whatever you're trying to do that world pvp could interfere with.

Doing dailies is a boring chore involving repetitive and trivial tasks such as killing mobs and right clicking objects lying on the ground. The rewards are pointless and won't actually do anything that will noticeably improve your gaming experience.

There are reasons why you believe you like doing it, but they are probably wrong.

Get good and fight back?? Its been a long time since the last time I got ganked. There is no better feeling than minding your own business doing your dailies when this rogue jumps you, you kill him, /pity him or something and continue doing your thing.

"Druid must be boss, Hunter is just Drain-monkey.

Hunter scatter this rogue.
Hunter drain that priest.
Hunter where is frost trap. Bad Hunter! No banana!
Hunter where is flare? No flare, you get replaced by retarded warrior!"

The guide is clearly written for PVE healers with no competitive PVP experience who play on PVP servers. PVP servers are more frequently hubs for raiding than PVE servers. It is a good guide for that type of player.

I like world PVP too, it is more fun when the person is willing and able to fight back. I know not everyone agrees with that.

Most strictly PvE healers I know even on PvP servers do not have to leave a major city other than maybe to harvest nodes if they have a gathering profession or maybe a daily/questing if they are max level and bored. LFD pop times are very good for PvE healers and are much more viable for them to gear up and get cash than questing. Only easier role that can do this is a tank.

I will be out there, though, because I am not a big fan of healing in LFD. But, I am a minority. Although, I may not be much more than a easy kill for some of the better rogues. Healing specs tend to be a bit lower on damage and only really shine when you have a buddy.

Everyone knows a rogue can cloak / vanish / sprint when he's outnumbered or ambushed, and most rogues don't blow these cooldown trivially around the world. But, there are other options.

Mages, in addition to their normal escape tricks (including invis glyph for faster movement), can actually have a portal up at any time, hidden behind a hill. The portal costs gold, however, and has an onerous cast time, but it's still an option if you suspect your situation might turn south. Land, open portal, begin questing. This can also help if you have friends but can still be outnumbered.

Death Knights have the same trick, except their portals go somewhere much lamer (but just as safe). DK portals can be glyphed to be faster cast as well.

Anyone with a combat drop or a momentary ability to escape combat can have a deepholm potion.

The pvp survival guide for my server sadly is do whatever you want and go wherever you want at anytime, because these days there is zero pvp. I was fishing in Orgrimmar the other day for the achievement (I'm alliance) and 3-4 horde saw me, landed next to me, and did nothing. It's bad when you can't even get world pvp in an enemy factions city.